Proposed
UNSC Praise of
Arab League
Would Cite
Syria, Not
Palestine,
Spin War
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 20
-- Amid the UN
General
Assembly
speeches next
week, the
Security
Council will
meet on
September 26
and try to
adopt
a presidential
statement. The
text is being
negotiated but
has run
into at least
two blockages.
But only one
of them is in
the draft
distributed
earlier this
week, which
Inner City
Press is
putting online
here.
The
draft lavishes
praise on the
Arab League,
and cites to
the General
Assembly's
February 16,
2012
resolution
67/253
appointing a
joint Arab
League - UN
envoy on Syria
(Kofi Annan,
since failed).
The
two
(Permanent) Security
Council
members which
voted against
that GA
resolution are
said to oppose
this reference
too;
relatedly,
even more
members want a
reference to
the
Israel and
Palestine
issue, perhaps
a citation to
the Arab Peace
Initiative.
One Council
members asked
Inner City
Press, "how
can you not,
if you want to
use the Arab
League on
Syria?"
Language
has
been proposed
but, the
source
continued, the
United States
is
opposed to any
reference to
Palestine.
"It's the
election,"
the source
diagnosed.
And
so while
meetings
continue on
the bland
draft, some of
the September
26 meeting's
proponent are
lowering
expectations,
saying the
mere
meeting is a
success, no
output is
needed. So it
goes at the
UN.
, 
